Mantz v. Kersting’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A manual operation is not the equivalent of a mechanical means for performing it or of automatic action. As said in Brown v. Davis, 1885, 116 U.S. 237, 249 , 6 S.Ct. 379, 386 , 29 L.Ed. 659 : ‘But the lever, or its equivalent, as a mechanical instrument, is made an essential element in claim 2; and dispensing with the lever, and using instead the human hand, is not the use of an equivalent, although in the plaintiffs’ machine the hand is applied to work the lever.* * *' * * * * * * . “ -x- . * * Here, in the installation of the accused device, the tension adjustment is achieved by a machine shop or factory operation prior to the placing of the spring onto the drum, i. e. before assembly. Thereafter, no adjustment can be made. In the patented device, the adjustment of tension is achieved, after the device is assembled, by means of the rotatable axle and the disc. We thus have, in the patented device, a mechanical means for securing proper tension. In the accused device, we have no such means. Instead, we have a manual handling before assembly. The one is not the equivalent of the other. * * *” (Emphasis in opinion.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Crowson v. Dennington